Removing the Mystery

There are some things in this life that defy our rationality. The birth of a child, the euphoria of sexual intercourse, the transcendence of God, the fury of a hurricane. All of them can be explained in rational, scientific terms to a listening audience, must like sideline commentators at a sporting event. But ask the participants to explain. Ask the parents of a newborn child, or the virgin couple who have just experienced love-making, or the mortal who realizes he has just communed with God, or the person who has just survived a hurricane.

Why do we try to take the mystery out of everything? Because we believe knowledge is power, and we are lusting for power. We are following in the footsteps of our first father and mother, who were given the choice between the fruit of two trees — knowledge or life. They were deceived into believing that knowledge would make them like God, but instead it just destroyed life.

Our knowledge today makes everything bland, tasteless, dull and uninteresting. All has been explained in scientific terms and so we have discovered . . . . boredom.